Speculations mounted Sunday over possible interaction between officials from the US and North Korea on the sidelines of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, as North Korea’s delegation includes a specialist on US-North Korea relations.

Led by Kim Yong-chul, vice chairman of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party Central Committee, the eight-member delegation crossed the inter-Korean border on Sunday to attend the closing ceremony of the Olympics.

The North’s delegation includes Choe Kang-il, deputy director-general for North American affairs at the North’s Foreign Ministry, as well as a translator, according to the Unification Ministry.

Choe attended a conference in September last year in Switzerland and met with officials from the US. He specializes in North Korea-US relations and the nuclear issue, according to local news reports.

At the closing ceremony, Ivanka Trump, the US president’s daughter and senior adviser, was set to be present. The US delegation arrived in South Korea on Friday for a four-day visit for the closing of the Olympics.

The US delegation also includes Allison Hooker, a National Security Council official who specializes in Korean affairs, fueling speculation that some kind of meeting might be in the works behind the scenes.

Hooker, former East Asia and Pacific affairs analyst with the US State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research, went to North Korea in 2014, when she accompanied James Clapper, then-director of National Intelligence, to secure the release of two American detainees.

But North Korea and the US have dismissed the possibility of any interaction between the US and North Korean officials.

Sarah Sanders, one of the US delegation members and White House spokesperson, told reporters during a press briefingSaturday in PyeongChang that the US officials have “no planned meetings or interactions with North Korea.”

During her meeting with President Moon Jae-in on Friday, Trump reaffirmed the US’ commitment to the “maximum pressure” campaign, while Moon stressed the need for inter-Korean dialogue to continue to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

Meanwhile, the US Treasury on Friday blacklisted 28 ships, 27 companies and one person, imposing an asset freeze and barring US citizens from dealing with them, in what US President Donald Trump described as the “heaviest sanctions ever” levied on Pyongyang.

Pyongyang also denounced Washington, with its state-controlled Korean Central News Agency quoting the North’s Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee as saying “We will never have face-to-face talks with them even after 100 years or 200 years.”

By Ock Hyun-ju (laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)